The U.S. Role in Yemen

March 15, 2016

To the Editor:

In “Quiet Support for Saudis Entangles U.S. in Yemen” (“Secrets of the Kingdom” series, front page, March 14), Robert Malley, the Obama administration official in charge of Middle East policy, endorses the United States backing of Saudi Arabia in its armed conflict in Yemen but says “this is not our war.”

But American support for the Saudi-led coalition, including by providing targeting assistance and air refueling of coalition warplanes, makes the United States a party to the conflict in Yemen under international law. This obligates Washington to investigate coalition airstrikes that may be war crimes for which American forces may be liable.

Given the coalition’s repeated unlawful attacks in Yemen over the last year, which Human Rights Watch and others have documented, the United States should cease selling bombs to Saudi Arabia or risk complicity in civilian deaths.